Authorities are calling for Israelis to donate blood at local MDA stations across the country. The area has been declared a closed military area and the IDF spokesman has asked people to keep away. At Yoseftal Medical Center, 29 casualties were admitted with a range of injuries, including severe trauma. Seven of the most critically wounded were sent by medical helicopter to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. Two Egged buses and an IDF vehicle were targeted by unidentified terrorist cells in what appears to be a coordinated operation.

In the first attack, three terrorists ambushed bus #392 about 30 kilometers from Eilat as it traveled on Route 12 from Be'er Sheva towards the city, opening fire with automatic weapons. Most of the passengers in the first bus were IDF soldiers heading to the Red Sea resort city on leave. The troops engaged the terrorists in a shootout, killing at least two of the three operatives and leaving a third critically injured.

Terrorists targeted a second Egged bus less than an hour later, firing a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at the vehicle and wounding more passengers just a few kilometers from Eilat. An IDF military vehicle was blown up as it raced to the scene, driving over an explosive device planted on the road. A number of soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack.

Haaretz.com reports:- Shortly afterward, IDF forces rushed to the scene and were faced with several explosive devices that were detonated alongside an IDF vehicle. Simultaneously, an anti-tank missile was fired from Egypt on a private vehicle, and several mortar shells were also fired into Israel.

Overnight there were clashes between police and protesters demonstrating against the cost of the event. The event's organisers say most costs will be met by the pilgrims themselves. The visit comes at a time of economic hardship in Spain. After flying in to Madrid's Barajas airport, the Pope told journalists: "The economy cannot function as a self-regulated economy. Man must be at the economy's centre, which is not profit but solidarity."

Up to a million pilgrims from across the world have gathered in the city for events which will culminate with an open-air mass on Sunday celebrated by the Pope. Celebrations for WYD 2011 began on Tuesday evening with a giant open-air Mass where about 800 bishops, archbishops and cardinals from around the world - along with 8,000 priests - tended to the congregation.

On Wednesday, Spanish police said they had apprehended a Mexican chemistry student who was planning to attack an anti-Pope march with "asphyxiating gases and other chemical substances". Officers had searched his apartment and seized an external hard-drive and two notebooks with chemical equations not related to his studies, police said.

A new Public Service Announcement entitled 'The Drop Off - If You See Something, Say Something' was unveiled by none other than Big Sis herself, Janet Napolitano, on the Homeland Security website today. The PSA, which will be played on television and radio stations, shows a well dressed attractive white woman exiting a taxi before walking into a subway station. The taxi driver - a white man - then makes a phone call and sets a timer on a device in the trunk of the car. The woman then leaves her bag in the station.

"If you see something, say something - report suspicious activity to local authorities," states the voiceover as the clip ends with other commuters reporting the incident to a black security guard and a black police officer. In her accompanying statement to the video, DHS chief Napolitano also hints that gun stores could be a prime breeding ground for terrorists, making reference to a recent case where, "the owner of a gun store near Fort Hood called authorities when an individual in his store was behaving in a suspicious manner."

As we highlighted last month, a longer PSA recently produced by the DHS overwhelmingly went to significant lengths to portray white Americans as the most likely terrorists, despite the fact that the 126 people who were indicted on terrorist-related charges in the United States over the last two years were all Muslim. Bizarrely, the majority of the people shown reporting suspicious activity to authorities were portrayed as non-whites.

Her department received results from an autopsy Friday that confirmed the cause of death as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, which is caused by Naegleria fowleri. She said the amoebas, which swim up the nose and enter the brain, live in freshwater bodies around the world. The amoebas are particularly prevalent in shallow, still water during warm weather. But since Christian died, temperatures have dropped, and the amoeba population likely has fallen off as a result, Hall said.

The amoeba swims up the nose, through the sinuses and into the space around the brain, causing meningoencephalitis - inflammation of the brain and its lining - in a day to two weeks, said Dr Michael Edmond, epidemiologist for VCU Medical Center and chief of infectious diseases. Edmond said stagnant waters such as ponds and lakes pose more risks than moving waters. "Personally, I wouldn't swim in a pond, no matter what," he said. "The water isn't clean."

Last week, a 16-year-old Florida girl died of an infection that officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed was the same deadly amoeba. Meningoencephalitis causes brain swelling and is often fatal. Jeremy Lewis, a Texas father whose 7-year-old son, Kyle, died 11 months ago after contracting an amoeba while swimming in a pond with his family, said he wants to make people aware of the dangers of swimming in still water, particularly in warm weather.

Lewis wants to spread the message that people should not swim in ponds and lakes, especially in warm water, and if one does, to take precautions. He and his wife, Julie, formed the Kyle Lewis Amoeba Awareness Foundation to raise money and public knowledge about the parasite. He wants to get the word out that this isn't as rare as people think. "Prevention is the only thing you have," said Lewis. "As a father who lost a child, I'm asking, 'why didn't I know about this?'"

The 74-year-old was arrested on Tuesday and taken to Tihar jail accused of staging an illegal demonstration. He has since been released but is refusing to leave his cell unless the authorities relent and allow him to hold his protest on his terms. The well known activist wants the government's new anti-corruption legislation to be made much tougher. At present most government officials will not be able to be investigated by a new ombudsman.

His message has struck a chord with millions of ordinary voters. Indians - especially the growing and increasingly assertive middle class - are sick and tired of the endless cycle of corruption scandals. The disastrous start to the Commonwealth Games is now a symbol of the harm caused to the country by corruption. Unfinished construction work and a dirty athlete's village is a consequence, it is claimed, of having a political class which allegedly pockets billions of pounds from the public purse. Analyst Raja Mohan told Sky News the government is facing a major crisis to its authority.

At the moment the government has no answer to the building anger on the streets and the continuing standoff which is draining the ruling party's authority.

Amid the storm clouds of the single currency crisis, the apparent buoyancy of the German economy had been one of the few remaining rays of sunshine. Now that, too, has flickered out.

All the warning signs of another economic catastrophe have been there for a long time now, but with policy-makers fretting over how to save the euro, they have been ignored. Rather than attempting to stave off a double-dip recession by loosening monetary policy - and fiscal policy, too, among those member states that can still afford it - Europe has gone careening off in the opposite direction. Interest rates have been raised, and member states have been forced into self-defeating austerity programmes which, by destroying growth, have made underlying debt dynamics even worse. It is hard to imagine a more perversely inappropriate set of policies.

The truth is that a project meant to tame Germany and integrate her into the heart of Europe has backfired spectacularly. Far from making economies converge, it has succeeded only in driving them ever further apart. From Britain's island haven, we can only look on in horror as Europe once again stares into the abyss. The combination of tight fiscal and loose monetary policy that our free-floating, sovereign currency has allowed means that, in relative terms at least, we ought to fare better than our neighbours. But when the storm breaks, it will be small consolation to have the sturdiest raft.

"I'm counting on you because the area remains in anarchy, run by mafias. We can't keep allowing them to take it away," he said, adding that he would sign a decree in the coming days approving the move. "Let's convert it into our international reserves because gold is increasing in its value." The move follows opposition accusations that the Venezuelan government plans to transfer billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves held in countries such as the US to banks in "friendly" countries such as China, Russia and Brazil in order to avoid its assets being frozen.

Analysts estimate that of Venezuela's $29 billion international reserves, the government will only be able to move about $5 billion of its cash reserves. But with some two-thirds of its reserves held in gold, amounting to 364 tons worth $18 billion, the government is allegedly also planning to move the 211 tons of gold that it keeps abroad, worth $11 billion, to the vaults of the central bank in Caracas, according to opposition lawmaker Julio Montoya.

"We think that China, Russia and Brazil have asked Venezuela to transfer the reserves to guarantee the loans that the government has received in recent years," said Mr Montoya. According to local paper El Universal, Venezuela has accumulated some $34 billion of debt with those countries over the past 16 months. Despite sitting on one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the world in the south of the country, Venezuela has struggled to develop its gold sector for decades, which has been over-run by illegal miners and smugglers. Although Venezuela officially produces 11 metric tons of gold a year, illegal miners extract an additional 10 to 11 tons a year, according to Mr Chavez.

From six billion people, the figure estimated in 1999, the gap between the global birth and death rates has swiftly brought the total figure towards the next billion in just 12 years. INED expects it to take a further 14 years to reach eight billion people before the figures start stabilizing, according to the study which pulls together research carried out by the United Nations, the World Bank and several major national institutes.

In historical terms the growth in the global population has been soaring since the 19th century. "It has increased seven-fold over the last two hundred years, topping seven billion in 2011, and is expected to reach nine or 10 billion by the end of the 21st century," the report said. Just seven countries now account for half the world's population, and therefore their demographic shifts have a major effect. China tops the list with over 1.33 billion people, with another 1.17 billion in India. The other five countries, in order, are the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The Swiss franc jumped 2 per cent against both the euro and the dollar in a matter of minutes, as traders ignored the Swiss National Bank's decision to almost double the amount of liquidity available to the money market from SFr120 billion ($152 billion) to SFr200 billion. The increase, which compares with "normal" liquidity levels of about SFr30 billion, has lowered already rock-bottom interest rates and turned some short-term rates negative.

"The measures taken thus far by the Swiss National Bank against the strength of the Swiss franc are having an impact. Nevertheless, the Swiss franc remains massively overvalued," the SNB said. The Swiss government also announced that it would allocate SFr2 billion to help consumers, exporters and the tourism industry, which have all been hit by the currency's rise. "Measures... are being examined and will be rapidly implemented," the government said in a statement, but did not provide any details.

Migros and Co-op, Switzerland's two dominant retailers, this week removed some imported items from their shelves, after they said foreign suppliers had failed to lower prices adequately to reflect the franc's rise. Many investors had expected the SNB to adopt tougher measures to weaken the franc, by either intervening directly in the market or even announcing a target rate for the currency against the euro. Last week Thomas Jordan, SNB vice-president, refused to rule out the implementation of a target rate, or currency peg, to rein in the franc, which has been driven higher as investors seek refuge from the eurozone debt crisis and fiscal worries in the US.

The investigation began before Standard & Poor's cut the United States' AAA credit rating this month, but it is likely to add fuel to the political firestorm that has surrounded that action. Lawmakers and some administration officials have since questioned the agency's secretive process, its credibility and the competence of its analysts, claiming to have found an error in its debt calculations.

During the boom years, S&P and other ratings agencies reaped record profits as they bestowed their highest ratings on bundles of troubled mortgage loans, which made the mortgages appear less risky and thus more valuable. They failed to anticipate the deterioration that would come in the housing market and devastate the financial system.

Since the crisis, the agencies' business practices and models have been criticized from many corners, including in Congressional hearings and reports that have raised questions about whether independent analysis was corrupted by the drive for profits. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating possible wrongdoing at S&P, according to a person interviewed on that matter, and may be looking at the other two major agencies, Moody's and Fitch Ratings.

The background to the meeting was last week's tumult in the world financial markets. Shares had gone into freefall after the downgrading of America's credit rating. Worse than that, however, were the tremors rattling some of Europe's most important banks, notably in France, caused by further evidence of the utter failure of even the more developed European economies to live anything like within their means.

Instead, there was forceful talk of Eurozone countries being coerced into balancing their budgets and reducing their debt through what Merkel and Sarkozy called a 'true European economic government movement' made up of all the heads of state and led, initially, by the EU President Herman Van Rompuy. Although she will not yet admit it, THIS ALL SUGGESTS THE FIRST STEP HAS BEEN TAKEN TOWARDS A FISCAL UNION that will leave Germany dictating the financial terms for the rest of Europe.

BE IN NO DOUBT WHAT FISCAL UNION MEANS: it is one economic policy, one taxation system, one social security system, one debt, one economy, one finance minister. And all of the above would be German. Where Hitler failed by military means to conquer Europe, modern Germans are succeeding through trade and financial discipline. Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

If Germany is to continue to prosper, Europe must prosper: but A RUTHLESS SOLUTION MAY HAVE TO BE IMPOSED in order for that to happen. If the European project is to continue, Germany will not merely have to underwrite it, but control it.

Germany and France have launched a dramatic euro power grab, demanding the right to dictate economic policy to other countries in the single currency. France's Nicolas Sarkozy announced - at a Paris summit with Germany's Angela Merkel - that the two most powerful nations in the eurozone had agreed on a 'true European economic government' to deal with the debt crisis.

The 17 countries in the single currency will be ordered to balance their budgets by 2012 and will have their economic policies overseen by a new eurozone body. EU president Herman Van Rompuy will lead the new body, which will meet twice a year to dictate tax and spending policies. In what amounts to a major step toward a European superstate, France and Germany announced they will adopt a common corporate tax system by 2013, in an effort to signal they are 'marching in step' to protect the euro.

And they will draw up plans for a financial transaction tax, which will cost the City of London billions a year if it is extended to the UK. The plans were a dramatic bid to reassure the markets that EU leaders are serious about saving the euro from collapse. Chancellor George Osborne, who has been calling for bankrupt countries to cut spending, gave a cautious welcome. Senior Treasury officials said they regarded further integration as 'the only way to stop the euro from failing'.

They pledged to use the reorganisation as a chance to negotiate a better deal for Britain in Europe but vowed that the UK would refuse to join a system in which the EU dictated economic policy.

Growth in both Germany and The Netherlands fell to 0.1 per cent in the second quarter as exports faltered. France reported earlier this week that growth in its economy had sputtered out altogether. German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted the economy was doing fine and needs no extra support. "I think we're on the right track," she said.

THE SUDDEN DOWNTURN REPLICATES THE PATTERN SEEN BEFORE THE LEHMAN BROTHERS CRISIS IN 2008 and threatens to play havoc with the debt dynamics of vulnerable countries. It also marks ominous new turn in the eurozone crisis. Europe's survey data point to a manufacturing contraction over the early autumn, making it even harder for the struggling debtors of southern Europe to claw their way back to viability. The two fear gauges in the credit markets - the iTraxx Crossover index and the Euribor/OIS spread - are both issuing warning signals.

"WE HAVE REACHED THE TIPPING POINT," said Andrew Robert, credit strategist at RBS. "All the props have been knocked away from global growth, the eurozone and Europe's banking system. The risk of global recession is far higher than markets are discounting." The grim data came as Chancellor Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy emerged empty-handed from their Paris summit, offering nothing concrete to restore crumbling confidence in the eurozone project.

The two leaders ruled out eurobonds and refused to boost the firepower of the eurozone bail-out fund beyond 440 billion euros (386 billion pounds). Mr Sarkozy said EUROBONDS could be "imagined one day" but have no democratic legitimacy at this stage and WOULD NOT WORK WITHOUT MUCH DEEPER EMU INTEGRATION. "Today's meeting produced nothing," said Kathleen Brooks from Forex.com. "The markets are likely to be highly underwhelmed. The only thing we do know is that Sarkozy and Merkel aren't willing to ditch the eurozone and let the peripheral nations drown just yet."

SPIEGEL: You recently said that it would be a "catastrophe" if an American rating agency downgraded the United States' credit rating. Now that Standard and Poor's has taken that step, is the situation as bad as you imagined?

Guan: This rating on the US credit crisis has a significant influence on the world. China is the largest debt holder of the United States, and the downgrade will primarily damage the value of the US dollar assets and bonds held by China. Second, it will influence China's export of commodities to the United States in the future. More importantly, it will lead to the deterioration of global macroeconomics for both developed debtor economies and emerging creditors.

SPIEGEL: Will China invest less in US bonds from now on?

Guan: I personally think it's unsafe to invest in US bonds. It is too risky. But the Chinese government might have considerations other than just economic risk. In terms of pure investment, however, it is not a wise decision any longer.

SPIEGEL: Both the US and Europe are struggling with a massive debt crisis. Is this the end of Western dominance?

Guan: The EU and the United States both have this model of borrowing money to boost their economic development. But they borrow money from the future, they mortgage a virtual fortune that they may - or may not - earn for their creditworthiness and their current consumption. This has been their model since World War II, but this model ended in the financial crisis of 2008. Continuously creating demand for credit to enlarge capital and cash flow has used up their creditworthiness. This means the model of economic development in developed Western capitalist countries has ended. It leads to another question: Should the government keep borrowing money to support its citizens in consuming much more and maintain high social standards? I think the answer is no.

SPIEGEL: Your agency downgraded the United States before Standard and Poor's did so. Why?

Guan: We use a different rating system. When we evaluate sovereign creditworthiness for the United States, we consider the potential outlook of its economic development - the driving force to boost its economy - along with its revenue and expenditures. The US has poor performance in all three criteria. Besides, it needs to borrow a lot of money to keep running the country, and without improving the above three criteria, its ability to repay debts will worsen further.

SPIEGEL: Were American rating agencies unable to look at the situation from the same sober perspective?

Guan: My major criticism is that they do not evaluate and rate a country according to what actually causes risks to creditworthiness. Instead, they use ideology and values. If we keep using this rating system, the whole world will be in great danger.

The franc's rapid rise has prompted squeals from Swiss businesses and exporters, who see their margins dwindling, raising the pressure on Swiss officials to take decisive action. As part of the new measures, the government will exempt small and medium-sized companies and hotels from social security contributions, the TagesAnzeiger newspaper reported, citing sources close to the Swiss cabinet.

The social security reductions, which could reduce the burden on companies by up to 1.3 billion Swiss francs, will be limited for one year, the paper said. In addition, Economy Minister Joseph Schneider-Ammann plans to support the tourism industry and the commission for technology and innovation with 100 million francs each.

The measures outlined by the newspaper are similar to measures announced by the government earlier this year. The government in July rejected the idea of capital controls. Speculation has also been rife that the Swiss National Bank, which is in talks with the Swiss government, could set a lower limit for the euro-Swiss franc exchange rate on Wednesday.

($1 = 0.791 Swiss Francs)